News Iraq war going to cost us $8000 each

The cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could total $2.4 trillion through the next decade, or nearly $8,000 per man, woman and child in the country, according to a Congressional Budget Office estimate scheduled for release Wednesday
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In the months before the March 2003 Iraq invasion, the Bush administration estimated the Iraq war would cost no more than $50 billion.

No money for children's health care and no money for college student loans, but we are being forced to spend $8000 each for a mess in Iraq. For some strange reason I feel that I am being ripped off.

If they dumped that 2.4 trillion bucks into education, NASA, and more scientific research, USA would live in a space age twenty years from. A trip to mars costs about 200 billion currently, that's just a fraction.

On the other hand, they have to keep defense contractors in business, otherwise they will start bidding for china.

On the other hand, they mismanaged projects in Iraq thus wasted billions of dollars anyway.

Considering the fact that I easily pay over $3,000 per year (probably a lot more, I haven't checked) in federal income tax and also taking into account that a lot of funding for the war is from borrowed money which interest will have to be payed on in the future, then I could easily see how I would have to pay $8000 over the next decade or so to fund the Iraq war. A huge waste of my hard earned $ if you ask me.

The Democrats are always cleaning up the Republicans make. The Democrats are like the caring mother, the Republicans are like the drunken father. The people are like neglected children.

Seriously, Dems don't care about any individual anymore than republicans. It is about getting into office so it becomes a competition about votes not issues and values for the people. I am skeptical of both sides, one likes to tax the other restrict individual liberties.

No money for children's health care and no money for college student loans, but we are being forced to spend $8000 each for a mess in Iraq.

I think this can be sort of misleading, considering that the money is probably not going to come from increases in taxes. It's very hard for politicians to raise tax rates because citizens generally don't vote for it. Especially with something as controversial as this war, there is no way that tax rates could be increased in order to fund it. Instead, the money comes from taxes that have already been collected, decreases in government spending on other things, and money borrowed from the treasury (in other words, an increase in the deficit).

So if your worried about uncle sam coming to your door and asking for $8000, don't lose any sleep over it. And if your worried that the money would have been spent responsibly if it wasn't for the war, again don't lose any sleep over it.

I feel like this very often, as the government taxes and spends way too much with or without the war. I feel ripped off that I am forced to pay for all kinds of things. Who pays the salaries of beuracrats, politicians, teachers, and post-office workers? Who pays for Social Security? I could go on and on, but I won't. The real tragedy is that the poorest people in our society are hurt the most by this system.

That $2.4 trillion (however off the guess may be) is being spotted by the Chinese, who btw have like $1.5 trillion of our own; it is very much worth every penny. So if americans are not willing to purchase more bonds and boost this nations savings, then expect more of the same.